Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

Author(s): Prabhavnanda Swami, Christopher Isherwood
Publisher: Ramkrishna Math Madras

Page 16

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
Whatever our senses preceive is right knowledge, provided that there has been no element of delusion. Whatever we infer from our direct perception is also right knowledge, provided that our reasoning is correct. The scriptures are based upon the superconscious knowledge obtained by great spiritual teachers while in the state of perfect yoga. Therefore they also are right knowledge. They represent a kind of direct perception far more immediate than the perceptions of the senses, and the truths they teach can be verified by anyone who attains to this superconscious vision.
विपर्ययो मिथ्याज्ञानमतद्रूपप्रतिष्ठम् ॥८॥ 8. Wrong knowledge is knowledge which is false and not
based upon the true nature of its object. The classic example given in yoga literature is that of a piece of rope which is mistaken for a snake. In this case, wrong knowledge will cause us to fear the rope and avoid it or try to kill it.
शब्दज्ञानानुपाती वस्तुशून्यो विकल्पः ॥६॥ 9. Verbal delusion arises when words do not correspond to
reality. A common form of verbal delusion is jumping to conclusions. We hear somebody speaking and form a hasty and inaccurate picture of his meaning. In political speeches one often finds a double verbal delusion: the speaker believes that his words correspond to one reality, the audience attaches them to another-and both are wrong. Such expressions as "the spirit of democracy,” “the American way of life," and so forth, bear rich crops of verbal delusion every year, in the newspapers and over the radio.